The Latest: High court won’t decide immigrants’ fate for now

2/28/18 5:18 PM

WASHINGTON — The Latest on the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene, for now, in the fate of a program protecting young immigrants from deportation (all times local):

6:30 p.m.

The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s highly unusual bid to bypass a federal appeals court and get the justices to intervene in the fate of a program that protects hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

The announcement means the case affecting “Dreamers” will have to work its way through the lower courts before any Supreme Court ruling is possible. The case could also become moot if Congress takes action on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, although efforts in Congress have hit a stalemate.

DACA supporters are hailing the decision as a significant — if only temporary — win. The program has provided work permits and protection from deportation for about 800,000 young people who came to the U.S. as children and stayed illegally.

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12:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump is criticizing the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over its ruling on the case involving young immigrants from deportation.

Trump says during a meeting with the nation’s governors that, “Nothing’s as bad as the 9th Circuit.”

He’s complaining that “every single case filed against us is in the 9th Circuit” and that, “We lose, we lose, we lose and then we do fine in the Supreme Court.”

Federal judges in San Francisco and New York have issued injunctions ordering the Trump administration to keep the program protecting “Dreamers” in place while courts consider legal challenges to Trump’s termination of the program.

The administration wanted to bypass the federal appeals court in San Francisco and go directly to the Supreme Court to decide the program’s fate, but the Supreme Court declined to intervene.

12:15 p.m.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and immigrant advocacy groups are applauding the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene in a program that shields hundreds of thousands of young people from deportation. But they also caution that relief is only temporary.

Becerra says Monday’s decision is victory for the rule of law because the Trump administration will now have to go the usual route of going first to appeals courts in its efforts to overturn injunctions that keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in place. The California Democrat joined other state attorneys general and the University of California in lawsuits to preserve DACA.

Andrew Pincus, an attorney working on the case to keep DACA in place, says June is probably the earliest that appeals courts will rule on injunctions issued by courts in San Francisco and New York that allow DACA recipients to renew permits to live and work in the United States.

11:50 a.m.

The White House is accusing a federal judge of usurping legislative authority after the Supreme Court refused to intervene in arguments over a program that protects hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

And he is accusing a federal judge of “unilaterally” re-imposing a program “that Congress had explicitly and repeatedly rejected.” A judge in San Francisco issued an injunction in January ordering the administration to keep DACA in place while courts consider legal challenges.

A New York judge came to the same conclusion earlier this month.

The Trump administration had made a highly unusual bid to bypass that process. Trump announced he was ending DACA last year.

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9:36 a.m.

The Supreme Court is rejecting the Trump administration’s highly unusual bid to get the justices to intervene in the controversy over protections for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants.

The justices on Monday refused to take up the administration’s appeal of a lower court order that requires the administration to continue accepting renewal applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. What made the appeal unusual is that the administration sought to bypass the federal appeals court in San Francisco and go directly to the Supreme Court.

Since then, a judge in New York also has ruled in favor of immigrants challenging the end of DACA.

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